Neglected information and opinion relative to Israel, the Middle East and the immediate world.

Dr. Daniel Pipes’ Observations Re: The World without the Benign Power of the United States of America

Address by Dr. Daniel Pipes, November 12, 2014

Review and Commentary by Jerome S. Kaufman

We were fortunate to have Dr. Daniel Pipes political analyst, writer, founder and editor of the Middle East Forum address our synagogue Wednesday evening. He spoke on world-wide events. Faced with this formidable task, Dr. Pipes elected to try and give us a snap shot view of those countries in which we were likely to have the most interest.

Dr. Pipes was concerned with Turkey, putting aside, just for the moment, the terrifying threat of Iran’s nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, Iran’s development of the bomb appears to be a foregone conclusion, especially with the ineptitude of John Kerry and the questionable political allegiance and motivation of Barack Obama.

Dr. Pipe’s concern was based upon the genuine strength of Turkey — its size, population — apx. 75 million — relatively advanced culture, education, military capability, vital geographical location and most important, its leader, Recep Erdogan, a dedicated enemy of the West. Not unlike Vladimir Putin, who is obviously working toward the reformation of the USSR, Erdogan is equally ambitious in his recidivism dedicated to the return of a Grand Caliphate over the Middle East and much of Europe.

Pipes then spoke of Iraq and Syria, almost in the past tense, as completely failed states whose flimsy fabric, artificially created after WWI, was easily destroyed by the initial thrust of the very successful Sunni Moslem extremist group, ISIS/ISIL, now attracting dissident Muslims of all stripes and nuance.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, has issued a defiant call for followers to “erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere”. He specifically called on Isis fighters to launch attacks in Saudi Arabia, particularly on its rulers, and in Yemen. He proclaims himself as the initiator and founder of the reborn Grand Caliphate. By the way, within the last few days, written and video reports have been presented claiming Baghdadi has been killed.

Unfortunately, assassinations of this sort never seem to mean very much with a new leader quickly taking the place of the guy eliminated. Obama’s much self-heralded and only supposed foreign achievement, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, is a perfect example of this much ado about something that quickly becomes very little.

Dr. Pipes was dismissive of ISIS, what with their crude beheadings, their return to the ugliest aspects of sharia law and, in the process, creating enemies of the major Arab powers: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen and Iran, when their own destructive ambitions do not conflict. Al-Baghdadi even woke up the naive, slumbering, totally ineffective, underarmed, pacifist and cowardly European Union unified only in their mindless denunciation of their real ally in the area, the state of Israel.

Dr. Pipes then addressed the Israeli/Arab conflict. There was no equivocation in his remarks. The “Peace Process” is a complete failure — no matter how many trips back and forth made by John Kerry. The process itself is based upon an ancient lie perpetrated by Yasir Arafat signing the Oslo Accords in 1993 wherein the Arabs were to accept the existence of Israel as a separate Jewish State. Two different peoples were to live side by side in peace.

Pipes recommends Israel finally disregard the useless, fictitious Oslo Accords, defeat its sworn relentless enemy and not stop until complete victory with abject surrender is achieved. Nothing else has worked for 50 years and nothing else will.

Pipes then briefly discussed the Egyptian nation and declared it also a failed state. Egypt has long been in desperate straits. Once considered the bread basket of the Middle East as a result of the agricultural munificence of the Nile River, it is now unable to feed its own gargantuan, ever growing population. There is no promise in sight except as an insatiable welfare state totally dependent upon the kind support of its Arab neighbors and Israel.

Finally, Dr. Pipes got to current American Foreign Policy. He considered it an unmitigated disaster. Obama has alienated allies that have been with us for decades. The first thing he did taking office was to insult the British with the return of the sculpture of Winston Churchill held in a place of well deserved honor in the White House.

He left the Czechs and Poles hanging by stopping the development of sophisticated United Nations air defense systems on their territory to ward off the Russians who quickly have taken full advantage of this destructive action. He has allowed Russia to grab huge swaths of territory under false pretenses in Georgia and now Ukraine. As a result the Baltic States and Poland live in understandable dread and have no faith in the US defending them. Nor does anyone else.

Obama has also alienated our long time Arab allies: Saudi Arabic, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and seems to have a personal vendetta against Israel. And, is now, obsequiously attempting to placate Iran, not unlike the way we have placated North Korea with disastrous consequences.

Obama continued to destroy us by deliberately killing our space program leaving us completely dependent upon the Russians, of all people, for our existence in space. In addition, he has drastically cut the size of our army and recently stopped the building of new submarines badly needed against Russian and Chinese incursions into the farthest reaches of the South China Sea and vital American interests in the Pacific.

And, that is just the tip of the iceberg of the list. Never mind going into the domestic disasters and destruction he has wrought with his personal toys — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and his buddy, Eric Holder’s Justice Dept.

The meeting was then opened for questions. The first question was why was it that the media and the Congress and the Supreme Court have refused to Call out Obama for what he obviously is – A destroyer of the once great United States of America!

Dr. Pipes gave a politically correct answer. He described Obama as basically a Left winger who indeed resented the power and grandeur and strength of the US and, like his father and mother, considers the US an exploiting colonial power taking advantage of the “poor folks” of the world.

Pipes went on excusing Obama’s behavior as that of a confused man. In his heart of hearts Obama despises this country but, at the same time, he knows he has the role of the President of the US and is supposed to defend us and leave an exemplary legacy. Dr. Pipes explained Obama by saying it seems he assumes the role of colonial destroyer of the US on Mon and Wed but assumes the supposed usual defender of the US role on Tuesday and Thursday.

And, that is where Dr. Pipes and I parted company. Obama’s Tuesday/Thursday role is a farce wherein he cleverly pretends to help this great country but in fact continues to destroy it in every way he and his carefully assembled staff of misfits, malcontents and revolutionaries can devise.

Unfortunately, a huge percentage of Americans have no idea what is happening, are sound asleep and understandably pre-occupied worrying about the source of their next pay check!

Without any doubt, we will soon pay the dire consequences of all of the above and May the good Lord please take the time to defend us. No one else will.